THE EDITOR, Sir:AS THE era of the church age come to an end? Virtually every one of us, as we look at the church we attend, and as we look at other churches in Jamaica or overseas via the Internet and television, what we see is shocking and unbelievable.
The worship service has become increasingly a time of entertainment. The preaching seldom, if ever, warns of the immanence of Judgment Day.
Signs and wonders, ignoring our Lord's warning that these things would be prominent as the world draws closer to the end.
Perhaps the most shocking experiences of the true believer within these churches is the rejection they will experience if they contend too strongly for greater purity in doctrine.
Indeed any spiritually minded believer must admit that something drastic has happened and is happening in even the most conservative of the churches.
We do know that prophecies in the Bible indicate that near the end, Satan would rule in the congregations through his ministers of righteousness. We are in the time of apostasy, also called a time of testing.
False gospels have proliferated in the congregations, they have become altogether apostate. Revelation 13: 7: "And it was given unto him (the beast) to make war with the saints and to overcome them".
Second Thessalonians 2:1-10 speaks of the man of sin, the son of perdition who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. To sit means to rule and this is talking about none other than Satan himself.
Christ warns the true believers in Matthew 24, Luke 21 that when we see this abomination which causes desolation we should flee from the apostate churches.
In Revelation, God likens the cooperate church, not the true invisible church, as Babylon. She is the harlot who has fallen from her once esteemed position, today she is a joke,
We were warned that judgment would begin in the house of God first (2 Peter).
Just as God punished Israel his beloved, causing them to be taken captives by the king of Babylon, because of their disobedience so has he allowed Satan to take the church into spiritual captivity for their disobedience.
God has not changed, when the woman Eve disobeyed all mankind became captives of Satan, Israel his wife disobeyed she was taken captive and so is the cooperate churches, this does not include the true believers.
I am, etc,
PAULETTE ERSKINE
poppins@cwjamaica.com
